6o2 The Joiu'iial of Forestry. 



and waterM'oi'ks, and tliat a great number of the ancient houses in the 

 city of London were built with it, and that it is suitable for tables and 

 other articles of furniture. Many instances are on record of the 

 enduring qualities of its timber. In a paper communicated to the 

 Society of Arts, it is said that a limb of chestnut, about thirteen inches 

 square, which Avas put down as the hanging-post of a gate, carried the 

 gate without alteration for fifty-two years, and when taken up was 

 found to be perfectly sound, and was again put down for a clapping- 

 post to another gate. In 1772 a fence was erected of posts and rails 

 converted from young chestnut, and oak, of the same size and age. In 

 1791, the fence having to be removed, the chestnut posts were found 

 to be as sound as when first put down, but the oak ones were so much 

 wasted just below the ground that they could not be used again 

 without a spur, thus proving the superiority of young chestnut over 

 young oak for fencing purposes. The great excellence of the 

 chestnut is in the early period at which it forms mature or heart- 

 wood, it being no uncommon thing to find trees not more than thirty 

 to thirty-five years old with the whole of the bole converted into 

 heartwood, except two or three of the outer rings ; and even in trees 

 of only a few years' growth the proportion of heart to sap-v/ood is so 

 great as to render poles of ten to fifteen years very endurable, and con- 

 sequently of great value for such purposes as fencing and hop poles. 

 In the midland and southern counties of England it has been found 

 very profitable for the latter purpose, when grown as coppice on suitable 

 soil. It is a highly popular and remunerative crop in the hop-growing 

 districts, and is known to have realized as much as £60 per acre from 

 the growth of fifteen years' coppice, and this too upon land which for 

 any other purpose would not have realized more than a third of that 

 sum in the same time. On deep rich sandy loam it grows with great 

 rapidity, often averaging three feet of an annual growth, and forming 

 a straight, clean stem, with a larger proportion of heartwood than is 

 to be found in any other of our trees adapted for coppicing ; hence its 

 value for that purpose, and the high rate its produce brings in the 

 market. 



We have now seen the last of a year remarkable for the want of 

 sunshine, and, we hope, exceptionally bad weather, more especially 

 for farm and garden crops ; but it still remains to be seen what effect 

 the sunless season and heavy rainfall will have upon our forest crops. 

 So far as we can learn from our numerous correspondents, as well as 

 from our own observations, arboral vegetation has not suffered in the 

 same degree as the crops of the field, garden, and orchard; but, 

 undoubtedly, the want of heat and sunlight to mature and ripen the 



